Are millennials willing to get their hands dirty?

With many millennial entrepreneurs creating apps, what does the future of business and factories look like?

No one seems to create anything anymore. Nothing is tangible. Look at the winner’s of 30 under 30 awards. Millennials want to start app companies, search engine optimization (SEO) companies, and marketing companies. For those that don’t want to start companies, they become realtors, financial advisors, accountants and lawyers.

While there is nothing wrong with any of those jobs or companies, who will farm once the farmers retire? Will the tech savvy millennials be willing to get their hands dirty? Who is going to run the lumber mills or factories?

I am a member of the Vancouver Club and the Union Club. I get the privilege of speaking with the best and the brightest young entrepreneurs. We speak about many different topics. Donald Trump, interest rates, the Canadian dollar, real estate prices in Victoria and Vancouver, and AI are common topics.

Everyone wants to innovate, but no one wants to maintain what has been already build.

Not everyone can be an innovator. The millennials I know would never be happy working a 9-5 at a factory in an entry-level position. They all want to be CEO’s without spending 20 years working their way up in the company. If they join a company and they don’t get promoted within a few years, they are on to the next job.

Universities and events such as TED Talk focus on enforcing this need to innovate into the heads of business students. The message that comes across in business classes is that if you are a manager, you have failed. The only path to living a free life is entrepreneurship.

A business needs a blend of both innovation and stability. I work with a number of large CEO’s and they are innovating their industries that go back many hundreds of years.

When asked how Ledgers Accounting was able to grow to 63 locations and innovate the traditionally boring accounting industry, Ledgers Accounting CEO Gordon Haslam said:

“Ledgers is the “Accounting Firm of the Future”; by adopting state of the art technology, and with the implementation of rigid standards, policies and procedures, Ledgers is changing the landscape of accounting and taxation for small business in Canada. By providing small business owners with accurate, timely financial information at prices they can afford, Ledgers is setting the new standard for the accounting industry.”

Two law firms in Canada are innovating to ensure they are not replaced with technology.

Diamond and Diamond restructured their law firm as a marketing agency. The law firm was so successful in their marketing that it led to many personal injury lawyers reporting the law firm to the law society.

HART Legal was the first law firm in Canada to work with nonlawyer investors. While it is against law society rules to sell shares in a law firm, it is not against the rules to sell shares in a management company that is associated with a law firm.

While innovation is wonderful, some millennial will need to be willing to get their hands dirty in the future. But it won’t be me!